<p>I know this particular board is much more active than the dance board and since the question can be broached to all of the theatre parents too, I thought I would start a discussion here. We all love our children and want what is best for them. Dance, theatre, drama, are all difficult careers. It is so competitive and I know the kids have to prepare for that. But, how do you know if they are good enough for that major? Not getting into that type of program, but succeeding and being able to get jobs when they graduate? I feel my dd is a wonderful dancer, performer, etc. But is that just my opinion? She gets into pieces but should she be getting into more. How else should she be preparing herself post-college? She is in a little pond right now, what will happen later on? I know that most majors right now are not that secure in terms of the job market. I am a worrier by nature but am trying to look positively at the future. She says she can't imagine majoring in anything else. She is a sophomore dance major btw so she still has another two years of training. She loves what she is doing but how do you know if she has a chance for jobs later on? Am I the only one to be thinking this way?</p>
<p>Isn’t that the toughest question of all? How I wish I had an answer! At least actors can expect to continue their careers into old age if everything goes well.</p>
<p>You don’t have to worry about this. This is one of those questions that takes care of itself. Also, how do you know if they are good enough isn’t even the “right” question. How do you know they will be fortunate enough to meet the right people, to make the right move at the right audition, to get the right audition, to look the part, have the right chemistry, etc…</p>
<p>It’s not a useful question.</p>
<p>If they are good enough to have had outside attention outside of their school environment, attractive enough, or interesting enough, to have gotten approached from time to time by a casting director or agent? Likely they have a shot.</p>
<p>Having a shot in the performing arts is likely not enough, and yet, still, it doesn’t matter. There are hundreds of career paths in the performing arts, and almost all the best in every field, with rare exception, began as a hopeful performer.</p>
<p>That light guy/gal, sound guy/gal, camera, costume, styling, prop, scene, stage manager, director, choreographer, writer, etc… casting director, agent, manager.</p>
<p>It’s a huge field.</p>
<p>A good measure of potential is “how do they compete on a state/national level?” Is your child competing to get into top summer programs - even if you don’t have enough money to attend, try sending in audition tapes. It’s very easy to be a big fish in a small pond, ie. high school and community theater. And remember, at this age, it is all potential - a lot needs to happen (training, luck, connections, fairy dust) before anyone can really succeed in the performing arts, regardless of “talent.”</p>
<p>fairy dust. exactly. :)</p>
<p>Ok- you guys are too funny. 
I am just concerned that she graduates and then what? But then I guess so many of us worry about that regardless of the major.</p>
<p>I think you have a lot more physical measurables for this with a dancer - especially in ballet - than with most other types of artists. Especially actors. Are her teachers well-connected to the profession? If so, what do they say? Like I had a friend at the arts high school I attended who started off in dance but switched over to drama junior year after her parents asked a teacher who gave his honest opinion about her potential future in dance. And you know what? No lynch mob formed like it would have if one of the drama teachers had shared such an opinion about a student because it really did involve an analysis of those measurables. </p>
<p>With actors, I think a better question to ask than whether one is “good enough” is does the kid psychologically have what it takes to survive in the business? Scott Sedita who is one of the respected LA acting coaches gave some opinions about this in an interview I saw about his book entitled Making It in Hollywood. In his mind, the Three Steps to Success are Talent, Confidence and Perseverance and the Three Steps to Failure are Distractions, Addictions and Wrong Actions. And luck? That’s when preparation meets opportunity. It’s close to an hour long, but well worth taking the time to watch because I think he makes some great points. It’s not just for Hollywood, either. What he says carries over into the theatre as well. Here it is … [Judy</a> Kerrs Acting Is Everything Making It in Hollywood » Scott Sedita Acting Studios](<a href=“http://scottseditaacting.com/?page_id=219]Judy”>http://scottseditaacting.com/?page_id=219)</p>
<p>There is so much that goes into a career, and talent is only one small aspect. Business sense, marketing ability, energy, hard work, luck, knowing when the luck comes and being ready to take it, flexibility, schmoozing, auditioning skills, etc. etc. etc. We all know actors who are not all that talented and yet successful as well as wondering why certain talented actors can’t seem to get anywhere. I guess I’m saying much of what fishbowlfreshman said.</p>
<p>We are all nervous about our kids future but there’s no guarantee for their immediate success nor their long term success. An ingenue can be incredibly successful but gets lost once she turns 35 or 40, a character actor might take until 30 or 40 to be “discovered.” The only sure thing is that there is no way to know what the future holds for any of these kids.</p>
<p>I agree with a lot of what other people are saying here.</p>
<p>But additionally, I don’t really believe that “good enough” is ever any sort of absolute measure. I think just about anyone can BECOME good enough if they work hard at it. Which is why “persistence” is one of the traits that we list for someone who hopes to be succesful as a performing artist.</p>
<p>If somebody is going to auditions persistently and not getting offers, they need to do something to improve their acting, singing and/or dancing skills.</p>
<p>Also remember that today in the 21st century careers are very different from what they were like 100 years ago. Today, it is more normal to have many different careers over the course of one person’s work life. It would be very strange nowadays to start a career after college and stick with the same career until retirement. And if people find that they have made a mistake and are in the wrong career, it is now culturally acceptable to switch to another career, maybe even getting new training or education. There is no requirement, for example, for someone to choose the same major in grad school that they chose as an undergrad. You can go and get an undergraduate degree, pursue a career for a while, then go and get a graduate degree in a totally different field and start a completely different career.</p>
<p>KEVP</p>
<p>I agree with KEVP… I have no worries about my S going into acting as a career( although there will be plenty of negative Nancy’s who love to tell you otherwise). I really don’t know how talented my kid is?? Sometimes he gets the part in HS and sometimes he doesn’t, it just depends on what they are looking for in that play. If he finds he can’t make it as an actor further on down the line than he can always do something else. I think the training you get as an actor can make you competitive for almost any other career.</p>
<p>I will say that it is true that all of us have seen kids doggedly pursuing dreams in the arts when they appear not to have quite enough ability - for their PARTICULAR dream, at a PARTICULAR time. Sometimes people have to adjust their expectations due to experience … but also sometimes they do learn enough to overcome their limitations and they can really surprise us. I really try to reserve judgment. In this crazy world, so many “untalented” people have so much “success” that I have pretty much thrown up my hands rather than try to predict anyone’s results.</p>
<p>As for a personal perspective on assessing talent … having been active in the arts pretty much all of my life, professionally and non-professionally, I feel that being “good enough” is only a moderate - if not small - percentage of the equation. I don’t mean to sound vain, but when I was growing up, I was talented in several artistic areas (NOT theatre!), and my teachers strongly encouraged me to pursue a career in them. In one (visual arts), I was quite talented, but I had very little drive to do it professionally. In college I took many studio classes, but only for relaxation. In a second (music), I was pretty talented, but not in the conventional way that was necessary for conservatory study, and I did not want to change myself or conform - because I knew my talent would hit a wall anyway. I didn’t study it in college, but I played and learned through experience. In the third (writing), I had the most drive to do it, but it came the hardest to me, and it had the fewest options to find mentors and training (30 years ago), but I did follow that path educationally and personally as best I could. </p>
<p>Throughout my life, I have found ways to enjoy visual art - these days mostly through quilting and other fiber media - and actually have earned some money through those pathways. I have been a musician continuously, and I play and teach a lot, even though I don’t have the usual credentials. And while I studied English lit and writing, and I go to workshops, I have found this is a very private form of expression for me, and I didn’t end up having the writing career I envisioned, and more or less prepared for, when I was in college. </p>
<p>Life has taught me that being creative isn’t just “10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.” My experience is that it is about 25% ability, and 75% <em>inclination</em>. You have to want to do it, even if you are very talented. And inversely (conversely?), if you don’t want to do it, it doesn’t matter how talented you are. Caring about doing it is THE most important thing.</p>
<p>In addition, and as I have told both of my kids repeatedly, there are so many ways to have a life in the arts that defining “success” narrowly, or, perhaps, even using that term, cheats and even disrespects, the thousands of people who enjoy art, music, theatre, writing, dance and everything else in the creative world, every day of the week, whether or not for money, just for the love of it. My kids were lucky to grow up where they were surrounded by people who loved to DO things - artistically and otherwise - no matter what their talent, no matter whether anyone appreciated it, and no matter whether they made any money. What my kids noticed was that there are an awful lot of people who get a lot of joy from the arts and never ask questions about being good enough. They also noticed that an awful lot of those people are pretty darn talented - which taught them that fame and success don’t always come to (or matter to) the talented, and that the famous and successful aren’t always the most talented people out there. </p>
<p>Do what you love, and see what happens. Study what you love, and you will have a rich, happy college experience, and you will come out understanding yourself, and what you want out of life. Understand that life has no prescriptions, and trust yourself that you will know what to do when the time comes. That is all I wish for any of these kids.</p>
<p>Emmybet…well put. And I also agree with KEVP, I think persistence is crucial. And that is how I know my kids are pursuing the right path, they are persistent and relentless in their attitude and their actions in achieving their goals.</p>
<p>Totally agree with all above-- but also-- the energy and effort it takes for her to have gotten this far, will take her the rest of the way too. And maybe that won’t be fame, maybe it won’t even be dance. But the discipline, the daily work toward improvement, the love of the art…those will bring her to the next step, and the next, and those steps will be wonderful.</p>
<p>This is from Charles Durning’s obituary in the NY Times:</p>
<p>“After the war, still mentally troubled, Mr. Durning “dropped into a void for almost a decade” before deciding to study acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, he told Parade magazine in 1993. The school dismissed him within a year. “They basically said you have no talent and you couldn’t even buy a dime’s worth of it if it was for sale,” he told The Times in 1997.”</p>